Red herring

A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from an issue.[1]

There are two ways in which it is used. It may be used as logical fallacy during an argument or as literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion, for example in detective mystery books.[2][3]

It has long been thought that the phrase came from kippers (a strong-smelling smoked fish) to train dogs to follow a scent, or to divert them from the correct route when hunting; however, modern research suggests that the term was probably invented in 1807 by English polemicistWilliam Cobbett, referring to one occasion on which he had supposedly used a kipper to divert dogs from chasing a hare, and that hunters never actually used kippers to train dogs.[4] The phrase was later borrowed to provide a formal name for the logical fallacy and literary device.